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Charmaine Brown and Wellington Dengu
Government has commended the World Food Programme (WFP) for assisting it to tackle climate change issues in Zimbabwe.
Speaking during the handover ceremony of Toyota Land Cruiser by the WFP to Government in Harare last week, the Secretary for Lands, Agriculture, Water, Climate and Rural Resettlement, Mr Ringson Chitsiko —who was represented by Mr Washington Zhakata — commended WFP for responding to Government’s request for co-financing of the climate change adaptation plan by donating the vehicle to enable its smooth implementation.
“WFP initiates support from international funding windows to cushion the country against increased occurrence of extreme weather events such as droughts and flooding which leave thousands of poor rural households in a situation of food insecurity,” he said.
“My ministry welcomes this donation and looks forward to future engagements and collaborations with WFP.”
Mr Chitsiko added that the 2018-19 farming season has been characterised by prolonged dry spells which called for an urgent need to ensure that people are food secure.
“It is my hope that WFP will further complement Government efforts in resource mobilisation for food security as the season comes to an end,” he said.
WFP country director Mr Eddie Rowe said they were keen to provide tangible support to the Climate Change Management Department (CCMD) to strengthen its efforts towards climate change adaptation.
“The handover is one of many small significant milestones in a successful collaboration that was initiated two years ago between WFP and the CCMD,” he said.
“WFP is extremely happy to support the objectives of the project on Building Capacity to Advance National Adaptation Planning Process in Zimbabwe (2019-2021), leading to the development of a National Adaptation Plan1 (NAP) to face the challenges posed by climate change.”
The scheme aims to strengthen technical and institutional capacity to implement climate change initiatives.
Online Reporter